Turkey’s foreign ministry on Monday urged Armenia to support Azerbaijan’s plan to use a road from Aghdam to provide humanitarian assistance to Artsakh. The use of that road would completely cut off Armenia from Artsakh as Baku continues its blockade of the Lachin Corridor.
Ankara called on Armenia to “refrain from provocative steps, recognize the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan and support Azerbaijan’s efforts on the integration of the [Karabakh] Armenian population.”
The statement also claimed that Azerbaijan was unjustly being accused on the Lachin Corridor issues and stressed that Lachin is part of Azerbaijan and that Baku can “do with it as it pleases.”
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan last month threw his country’s support to Azerbaijan’s eight-month blockade of Artsakh, saying that the Lachin Corridor is Azerbaijan’s territory.
“Lachin road is Azerbaijan’s territory. Therefore, Azerbaijan takes whatever measures it deems necessary. Taking [such steps] is also one of its greatest sovereign rights,” Hakan said during a joint press conference on July 31 in Ankara with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov.
Ankara has continued to advance Baku’s interests as it tightens the chokehold around Artsakh. This, despite an agreement with Yerevan that talks on the normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey, must proceed without preconditions.
Yet Ankara has placed several preconditions on the normalization, namely by urging Armenia to accept the so-called “Zangezur Corridor,” another scheme being advanced by Azerbaijan to create a land route connecting to Nakhichevan.
